Marvin

I think most ASHP have some level of standby/frost protection power consumption of about the scale commented on. Also, of course, if your running, the heating / hot water it won't be on standby!

I think there are mixed results for different trades in different areas of the country... Its honest of them to let you know and not keep you hanging. They may be a big company that is involved in large contract works, although I don't think HS2 is going that far!!! Try some others. I would try the Asphalt batching plants for company names. They will know who is working in your area. Good luck M

Hi @Nickfromwales We have a small tank in the loft with a potable mains supply via a double check valve feeding ball valve 1, and a float switch operating a pump on the rainwater side feeding ball valve 2. The loos are then gravilty fed. The ball valve on the rainwater side is an over filling precaution along with the overflow pipe. M

This should help: The male end of the stove pipe for wood burning should always point down and/or pointing at the stove. Also, the wood stove pipe should always be inserted into the collar of the wood stove outlet. From: https://www.rockfordchimneysupply.com/blog/correct-direction-to-install-wood-stove-pipe/

It's really sad, but rainwater harvesting is a real tricky thing to justify. The time that you want to use it most, is the summer when it's dry, and the time you need it least, well er, now. We have rainwater storage only which is used for watering plants and filling the loos. 4000ltr approx. Dries out in summer. Full all winter. We have to have 2 seperate supplies for the loos. 1 mains back up one rainwater. If I had any option again I would increase the tanks to 10000ltrs but still only supply plants and loos and spend any budget I was going to use on rainwater harvesting on additional insulation and additional PV. GOOD LUCK! M

Hi @umer My DNO's response June 2021: Good Afternoon Thank you for getting in touch. The below is the criteria required to apply. If you would like a formal connection offer and are applying for a generation connection of 50kW or less then this will be dealt with through our Microgeneration Team. You would be required to submit a Completed G99 A1-1 form, which I have attached for you. You will also need to provide the following supporting documents; Site Plan – Please show the site boundary and proposed new supply location. Schematic – Please show the name & size of inverters being used, a clear demarcation between the DNO and customer equipment and the generation itself. G99 Type Test Certificate LOA – Please provide a signed letter of authority dated within the last 12 months (if the landowner is applying please state this in the application/email). Some of this information you will be best to get from your appointed installer. Once you have everything you need, you can email north.Microgen@sse.com or south.microgen@sse.com where your application will be reviewed and registered. If you have everything required to make your application competent then it will be passed onto our Network Designer for quotation. You will receive this within 65 working days . Please be aware that Connection Offer Expenses, where applicable, will be due to be paid for the provision of this Connection Offer. Where applicable this will be payable even if you do not wish to accept your Connection Offer. If you cancel your applications within 14 days you will not be liable for any Connection Offer Expenses. However where applicable, if you cancel after this point you will be required to pay the full amount. For further information on Connection Offer Expenses, including where charges are applicable, you can find our Connection Offer Expenses user guide here. (https://www.ssen.co.uk/connections/usefuldocuments/) If you are applying on behalf of an ICP or IDNO please let us know. Please do not hesitate to contact us at mcc@sse.com or on the telephone number below if you have any problems or queries. Many Thanks

From discussions here, I think different DNO's want different things so I would double check.

Hi @umer They want to know where you are and what your connecting is limited to what your asking for. My rough plan showed the outside of the house and boundaries, where the panels were to be on the roof, where my consumer unit was and where the inverter was going to be. With brief description eg: panels here on front roof. Mains supply to here in the garage Inverter here in loft. With arrows.

1 Street plan showing location of property and full postal address. 2 plan of your property. 3 technical specification of the inverter you are proposing to install.

Hi @joth That's good info and thoughts! We know our inverter will allow just under 8kW of panels and we are going to increase them at some stage. M

Hi @umer This can take a few months to get a reply from your DNO. It took about 2 1/2 months for us and a £360 fee.

Hi @GaryW Yes low and slow is the order of the day. Low temperature water and slowly warming. The smaller the difference between the outside air temperature and the flow temperature from the ASHP the greater the fuel saving. We use adjusted weather compensation. When the day gets warmer the heating water temperature goes down. Our buffer tank is at 35°C and it is 10.8°C outside and over 22°C inside so allowing losses, say a difference of 28 degrees so for every 1kWh used, 4kWh of heat produced. Good luck M

Hi @Dillsue Sorry for the confusion. Perhaps this clarifies: When speaking to SSE (our DNO) they said it was about the maximum that could be exported and it has nothing to do with the panels or the battery storage capacity but the unlimited total output of any inverters connected to the mains.

another consideration? https://www.thelimecentre.co.uk/products/insulating-plaster-render-limecrete-floors/internal-insulation-in-old-solid-wall-buildings/

When speaking to SSE (our DNO) they said it was about the maximum that could be exported and it has nothing to do with the panels or the battery storage capacity but the unlimited output of the inverter. ( So a 12kW inverter adjusted to 3kW would need permission). I also understood that the battery storage has to go through the inverter, making the inverter limit the maximum export. If however there is a direct link from the batteries to the mains, not going through the inverter, the storage has to be added to the inverter limit? Or am I just confused again.

and some like us have a low wattage kettle....

Hi @jayc89 I know very little about lime plaster apart for the thought that I understand it needs to breath? Is this right? Can lime plaster suck in water for the outside and deliver it to the inside? Does this mean the walls need to breath? I'm sure someone will clarify...

but the floor as well

Aren't those stats designed to be installed 1/3 of the way up the tank?

Hi @lakelandfolk It might be good to sketch your system. So people can understand the system you have. The devil is in the detail. I think of kW as the power flow rate, and kWh as the amount of power counted. 2kw heater running for 2 hours gives 4kWh used. M

+1.

Do you realise how many 4 inch nails would be bought if you did this?

I am late into this but surely the only thing that can be deduced from the trial is that people involved in the test reduced the amount of power they used during the test period? Surely the only conclusion is that if you incentivise people to avoid using/use less power during a short set period of time, thus making it cheaper to use power at other times, the amount used will become less than usually used. We need a test for this??? One could hypothesise from this that less expensive power would be used during a 24 hour period if such a system was introduced (and maybe the facilities producing power would not need to be able to produce such a high level of power to supply the peak), however if this is about money, as the price is dictated by a free market, surely the suppliers will just try to raise the price of power either side of the test period when people would be using more, thus cancelling the "saving effect". Or have I missed something?

Hi @tommyt11 Often have had to buy a regular one and insulate it! Or on the last 2, build my own, and insulate them, and air tightness by compressing a gasket on the door stop and fixing shut by a latch or two.... Good luck M

Hi @Andrea C Not sure what you mean by PV switch but anyway. Our Solic box is connected along the cable supplying power to the immersion. The CT clamp that is used to monitor the PV supply is clamped to the positive cable going from the main meter to our our consumer unit. No cable is required to connect to any of the PV system. When installed in this way, as soon as excess power is produced, rather than delivering it to the main grid (if the hot water requires heating) the Solic will divert, whatever amount it is, to the immersion. We use a similar system to charge the EV (Electric Vehicle). The main difference being that the EV charger requires an inductive load and must have the full wattage to operate. This means we have set up a CT relay on the PV positive cable which only switches when a certain power level is reached; from 2kW during winter to 3kW in the summer. Whereas the immersion heater uses a resistive load and the diverter will divert only excess power be it 3000 watts or 20 watts, but only excess unless you over-ride it. Our car charging system supplies about 80-90% power from the PV unless overridden. The immersion diverter supplies 100% PV excess power to the immersion unless overridden. Today was quite bright and our hot water tank reads 72.5C all from PV. We have only heated the hot water tank using mains power once since about June. I assume other diverter makes work the same way as the Solic. Good luck Marvin.